Teri Horton, the California truck driver who made headlines when a painting she bought for $5 in 1992 was identified as a Jackson Pollock, is pretty confident of turning a profit when it goes on sale in Toronto this month: the price tag is C$50m (£27m). The catch is that no one can agree on who actually painted the work. Tests identified a thumbprint on the canvas as Pollock's, but the International Foundation for Art Research has refused to confirm that the work is genuine.

Horton has made it plain that she doesn't have much time for abstract art. "Do I personally think it's worth [$50m]?" she asked. "Hell, no. It's worth the $5 I gave for it. It's ugly."